From left to right: Host Brian Vines, Naz Ahmad (attorney at Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR) Project, CUNY Law), Imam Khalid Latif (chaplain of The Islamic Center at NYU), Amna Nawaz (ABC News Digital anchor and host of ABC Radio’s Uncomfortable Podcast), Zaheer Ali (oral historian/director of Muslims in Brooklyn at Brooklyn Historical Society), and Mehdi Hasan (columnist at The Intercept). Also on the panel: Moustafa Bayoumi (author of “This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror”) and Dr. Debbie Almontaser (president of Muslim Community Network) (Screen shot from video of the panel)

Journalists, educators, and activists shared their experiences of being Muslim in the U.S. today and the toll Islamophobia takes on one’s emotions and mental health. “Muslim in New York: A Community Comes Together” brought together the seven panelists on Oct. 11 in downtown Brooklyn at BRIC House. BRIC TV’s Brian Vines moderated.

In covering the town hall, BKLYNER’s Katherine Fung highlighted what Dr. Debbie Almontaser, president of Muslim Community Network, said about the impact of Islamophobia:

“This is psychological warfare on American Muslims. The fact that we have so many children changing their name from Mohammed to Mo [is] just truly devastating, and this is because of the fact that we live in a society where Muslims are seen as the ‘other,’ where people are supposed to fear Muslims.”

The panel also discussed religious profiling, the Trump administration, 9/11, being “‘traumatized’ by the idea of flying,” and the “double whammy discrimination” of being a Black Muslim, among other topics.

As the White House urged Congress to withhold $600 million in nutrition assistance to Puerto Rico, officials responded angrily that this is only the latest in a series of President Trump’s attempts to stop the flow of federal aid to the island, El Nuevo Día reports. Political analyst Domingo Emanuelli found the Trump government's actions “barbaric,” and urged Puerto Rican Republicans to reconsider their allegiance. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said: “I shouted against Trump’s abuses from the start while others were chummy with him. Trump is not the plantation owner and we are not his slaves.” Link to original story →

The Indigenous Peoples March being held in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18, a day ahead of the Women's March, will bring together groups from Puerto Rico to South America and Central America, reports Remezcla, to focus attention on issues from voter suppression to human trafficking to police brutality to what is called an “environmental holocaust” by activists. “I think it’s a collective cry for help because we’re in a time of crisis that we have not seen in a very long time,” says Nathalie Farfan, an Ecuadorean Indigenous woman and event organizer. Link to original story →

After vowing to create a more inclusive school system in North Carolina, the Durham Board of Education introduced a new department of second language services to serve newly-arrived immigrants who don’t speak English as a first language, Qué Pasa Noticias reports. One of the main goals of the initiative will be to coordinate a translation and interpretation system to help families participate in their children’s education. “As our Latinx population keeps growing we keep opening our schools’ doors to those arriving from all over the world,” said Superintendent Pascal Mubenga. Link to original story →

With Sen. Kamala Harris expected to announce her decision on a presidential run, The American Bazaar asks members of the Indian-American community about the potential candidacy of the California native. While some celebrated the possibility of Harris, who is of Jamaican-Indian descent, running amid the current political atmosphere, others say the country is "still not ready for a female president and certainly not a non-white." Link to original story →